Bihar Police arrests four more persons in constable recruitment exam paper leak

PATNA: The Economic Offences Unit (EOU) of Bihar Police on Thursday arrested four persons, including three from West Bengal, in connection with the constable recruitment examination question paper leak on October 1, 2023, leading to its cancellation by the Central Selection Board of Constables (CSBC) on October 3.

The arrested persons are Kaushik Kumar Kar and Sanjay Das, both residents of North 24 Parganas, West Bengal, and Suman Bishwas from Kolkata. Another arrested person, Saurabh Bandhopadhay, hails from Lucknow, Uttar Pradesh.

Earlier, on June 5, the EOU had arrested Ashwani Ranjan, Vikki Kumar, and Aniket, all residents of Bihar and alleged members of the interstate Sanjeev Mukhiya gang, currently in judicial custody.

Several members of the Mukhiya gang have already been arrested by Bihar Police in connection with the NEET (UG) and Bihar Public Service Commission's (BPSC) Teachers Recruitment Exam (TRE) - 3 paper leak cases.

The EOU has so far registered a total of 74 FIRs across various districts and arrested over 150 people in various question paper leak cases.

According to a statement by the EOU, Kaushik Kumar Kar's Kolkata-based firm, Caltex Multiventure Pvt Ltd, had been awarded the contract to print and supply the question papers for the Bihar constable recruitment examination. However, it was discovered that Caltex Multiventure Pvt Ltd was a one-room shell firm with no employees, and printing and supply of question papers were outsourced to Blessing Secured Press Pvt Ltd, where Kar's wife was a director.

Further investigations revealed that Kar had allegedly been previously involved in question paper leak cases for recruitment exams conducted by the Uttar Pradesh Public Services Commission (UPPSC) in 2019 and the Arunachal Pradesh Public Service Commission (APPSC) in 2022, prompting him to establish Blessing Secured Press Pvt Ltd.

The EOU's statement also highlighted serious deviations from standard operating procedures regarding the transportation, storage, and handover of question papers by Kar and his associates. Instead of sending the question papers to the state treasury as agreed, Kar's affiliated firms sent them to a warehouse owned by DP World Express Logistic Pvt Ltd in Patna, where they remained for six days without notifying the authorities.

"During this period, members of the Sanjeev Mukhiya gang were contacted by Kar, and the question papers were opened and circulated among gang members for further distribution to aspirants, who paid substantial sums for the advance knowledge," the statement said.

The statement further noted that during the examination on October 1, several candidates were caught cheating using electronic devices and other fraudulent methods, leading to the exam's postponement.

Subsequent complaints of irregularities, prompted the cancellation of the exam and the postponement of tests scheduled for October 7 and October 15.

The Bihar Police Constable 2023 recruitment aimed to fill 21,391 vacancies across various wings of the state police. The examination was conducted at 529 centres across 37 districts of Bihar on October 1, attracting over 18 lakh aspirants.